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Mackenzie Raetz
Leigh Edwards
What is a text?

Analysis of New Girl

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New Girl is a sitcom on Fox that began in 2011. The sitcom is a comedy that has been
running for four seasons, and will begin its fifth early next year. The shows main character is
Jess, played by Zooey Deschanel. The show starts with Jess breaking up with her boyfriend that
she shared an apartment with, so she has to find a new place to live. She ends up moving into an
apartment with three other guys who are best friends: Nick, Schmidt and Coach. This sets up the
plot for the rest of the show as she lives her life with these boys and goes through relationship
and work drama. The show displays examples of femininity and masculinity through the
characters. These gender roles play a key theme throughout the plot and the drama of the show
and create the main binary opposition for episodes like Menzies. While Jess is an overly
feminized character, she also displays characteristics of a manic pixie dream girl, which is a
female character that advances the male character and not herself. The manic pixie dream girl
character did receive backlash from critics who thought this made Jess a two-dimensional
character. The director responded through an episode where Jess defended her femininity to
another woman. Despite the directors argument, Jess exemplifies the manic pixie dream girl and
reinforces stereotypes without much three-dimensional character development. The emphasized
femininity, hegemonic masculinity and manic pixie dream girl status are huge factors in the
popular show, creating Jesss whole personality and displaying the main binary opposition.
The manic pixie dream girl is a trope used throughout television and movies. The

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term came about after a film critic named Nathan Rabin wrote a film review about the movie
Elizabethtown (Stevenson 1). Rabin used the term to describe Kirsten Dunsts character, but it is
now used frequently to describe female supporting characters in movies and television. Another
popular example is Natalie Portmans character from Garden State. The movies main character
is played by Zach Braff who returns to his home town after his mother passes away. While hes
home, he meets a quirky yet sweet girl played by Natalie Portman. The film continues as Braff
develops feelings for Portman, even though she listens to The Shins and randomly has bodily
spasms in her room. According to the film review by Rabin, the manic pixie dream girl exists
solely in the fevered imaginations of sensitive writer-directors to teach broodingly soulful young
men to embrace life and its infinite mysteries and adventures (Stevenson 1). Just like Portman
helped Braff overcome his past issues and see the fun parts of life in Garden State, Jess helps
Nick see the brighter sides of life in New Girl.
Rabin also described the manic pixie dream girl as someone who helps a man overcome
his melancholy (Stevenson 1). Nick is continuously harsh and brooding throughout the show due
to the fact that he dropped out of law school, had a bad break-up and now works as a bartender.
He usually has a dim view on life and constantly questions Jesss visible quirks. Jess displays
her manic tendencies in the very first episode. The episode starts off with her naked under a
trench coat in the back of a cab ready to seduce her boyfriend. While talking to her friend on the
phone, she hesitantly tries to think of her stripper name by calling herself Rebecca Johnson, then
Two Boobs Johnson. This whole scenario should be sexy or romantic, but when she gets to her
apartment she awkwardly dances around naked and knocks things over. This scene is where she
discovers her boyfriend is cheating on her and sets up her future move to Nicks apartment.
When she convinces Nick, Schmidt and Coach to let her move in, she introduces more quirks,

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like singing her own theme song and talking about her arts and crafts. After moving in, she
mourns her breakup by continuously watching Dirty Dancing, but eventually gets asked out on a
date. The date never shows up, so Nick, Schmidt and Coach come to the restaurant shes waiting
at. When they get to the restaurant, they begin to loudly sing (Ive Had) The Time of My Life
from Dirty Dancing to cheer her up. They sing in a quiet restaurant as other patrons look at them
like they are insane. Nick doesnt care about the opinions of other people, shamelessly sings in
public and begins to appreciate old 80s movies because of Jess. This begins the advancement of
Nicks character.
As the season continues, Jess doesnt evolve much as a character, but we continue to see
changes in Nick. Jess consistently cheers Nick up through his obstacles, like getting over his exgirlfriend, and has a chipper outlook on life. Some may argue, like the director of the show, that
Jess is much more than a manic pixie dream girl. The director defended Jesss manic tendencies
in an episode that shows her clashing with a tougher woman that is dating Nick. While Jess
successfully defends femininity, feminine tendencies and being a manic pixie dream girl are not
completely connected. The manic pixie dream girl has a generally whimsical outlook on life,
dances in the rain when no one is watching or owns things with baby farm animals on them. The
manic pixie dream girl is meant as support for another male character and is the perfect girl to lift
his spirits and help him see the amazing adventures in life. These are not all feminine qualities.
Though Jess is technically the main character, she generally helps Nick throughout his hard times
in life and changes him as a person. When we first met Nick, he didnt really seem to like Jess.
He constantly tried to change the things she was doing and would roll his eyes at all of her
idiosyncrasies. As you get into the first season, everyone begins to accept Jess and she never has
to change, but Nick does. Just like we saw in the first episode, Nick sings in public just like Jess

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does even though people are staring. In one of the Christmas episodes, Nick ditches his normal
Christmas plans in order to take Jess to see her favorite display of Christmas lights. When they
get to the street and realize the lights were turned off, Nick and the cast start yelling at all the
houses to turn their lights back on until the street is illuminated once again. The episode started
with Nick being frustrated about the concept of the Holidays. Jess changes him into a jolly spirit
that loves Christmas lights. Jess would break the manic pixie dream girl stereotype if she
evolved, but she has yet to do so. She did need help getting over her ex-boyfriend, but that did
not change her as a character. Jess is still the same weird, quirky and whimsical character she
was from the beginning while Nicks character changes with each episode.
The manic pixie dream girl may have started out as an insult when Rabin described
Kirsten Dunst all those years ago by framing her as an overly bubbly character created by men,
only meant to help advance the male character, but Jess is still a beloved character in todays pop
culture. Jess embodies this classic manic pixie dream girl trope, but she is not useless to
everyone. Without Jess coming through to change the lives of everyone around her, there would
be no plot for the show in the first place. Even though she has yet to change herself, changing the
other characters has made her crucial to the show.
Along with Jesss role as a manic pixie dream girl, reinforced gender stereotypes are
frequently used in the show. Masculinity versus femininity is the main binary opposition used in
most episodes. Jesss emphasized femininity becomes more blatant with Nicks hegemonic
masculinity present. Hegemonic masculinity is the ideal form of masculinity, such as being
straight, white and middle class, just like Nick. Jesss emphasized femininity comes from the
stereotypes of what real women usually are. Jess is very caring and nurturing in her job as a

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teacher, she wears a lot of dresses and polka dots and loves to bake. Her constant empathy for
people and animals reinforces a stereotypical woman.
In the episode Menzies, Jess and Nick contrast their femininity and masculinity. The
episode is about how Jesss PMS is driving all of them crazy, while Nick works on his aggression
issues. The episode reinforces those stereotypes because Jess is acting irrationally angry while
Winston and Schmidt cower in fear. Jess continues to go on a rampage and acts like PMS
makes her a whole different person. When she has to go to her job interview, the person
interviewing her shows her a picture of a puppy in a cup and she begins to cry about how small
the dog is. When the woman then mentions that the dog passed away, she begins to sob. The
woman looks frightened and seems to think Jess is crazy. Jess portrayed a woman that cant
function in a professional environment because of her period. Not only is this a reinforced
stereotype, but an overly exaggerated one. Jesss PMS makes her yell at everyone, bring up her
uterus multiple times and makes her unable to control her emotions, even when at work.
The group also criticizes Nicks inability to control his anger in the Menzies episode.
Nicks aggressive tendencies are portrayed through flashbacks. They show Nick as a child
throwing lemonade at kids for being watered down, then later in life yelling at a door he tried to
push when he was supposed to pull. The irrational anger and becoming physical with an
inanimate object displays aggression that is considered normal for masculine people. In the
beginning of the episode, the group says that Nick has always been that way and that its not
something he can fix. The idea that his anger is just natural and that there is no point in trying to
control it reinforces the masculine stereotype. While he does attempt to control it, they still show
Nick screaming and punching a table at the fact that there is no hot water.

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Schmidts story in the Menzies episode also portrays a gender stereotype. While at
work, Schmidt runs into a new female boss in the break room. When he approaches her, she
immediately says sexual things toward him then grabs him and bites his ear. The exchange
eventually leads to Schmidt going to her office, where she tells him that she wants to have sex
with him once he signs an agreement. Schmidt talks to his friends about the incident and when
someone suggests that its sexual harassment, Schmidt explains that there is a difference between
sexual harassment and a great thing. This scene shows that Schmidt is supporting the idea that
if its a woman requesting sex from a man, its not sexual harassment like it would be if the
genders were flipped. What the female coworker is doing is considered sexual harassment, but
the episode plays out with no one seeming that concerned. Schmidt eventually agrees to her
sexual contract and the rest continues in her office. This portion of the episode supports the idea
that women cannot be sexual offenders and that workplace harassment is not as concerning as
long as it is a woman doing it to a man.
These gender roles and stereotypes in New Girl are reinforced rather than critiqued. Jess
is an overly feminine character that falls apart while shes PMSing. She cries at pictures of
puppies and cant control herself in an interview because of the hormones. Nick plays on
masculinity by showing constant aggression. He raises his voice when its not necessary and
people accept him for being an angry person. At the end of the Menzies episode, Nick tells
Jess that her PMS is just an excuse and that she shouldnt let that stop her from accomplishing
things. On the other hand, Nick continues to be aggressive and people accept that he can never
change that because its natural, but in reality you can control your anger and PMS is natural.
That stereotype is supported in the show just like it is in society.

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Jess from New Girl fits into the manic pixie dream girl model because of her various
quirks and support of Nicks character. While the director of the show attempted to argue
otherwise, she did not win that argument. In the episode with the tougher woman, Julia, that was
meant to respond to this label, she argued more about why it was okay to be overly feminine.
Julia showed a less feminine version of a woman that mocked Jesss way of life. Jess made the
point that there are different versions of femininity, and that both were okay. While that is true,
being feminine is not what being a manic pixie dream girl is about. The bigger picture shows
what the female character does for the plot as well as the male character. The manic pixie dream
girl also displays more quirky tendencies rather than girly ones. As Natalie Portman showed us
in Garden State, she wasnt overly feminine at all. She listened to odd music, didnt really fit in
with a lot of people and danced for no reason. Her main role in the movie was also to help
develop Zach Braffs character, who eventually accepts his past and ditched his melancholy
ways. This is exactly why Jess fits the trope. She proudly displays her own quirks throughout the
show and never changes them. Nick is a brooding and aggressive character that is the exact
opposite of Jess. As the show evolves, Nick begins to change and see the error of his ways while
Jess never does. Nick now sings in restaurants, actively looks at Christmas lights and tries to
control his anger, all because of Jess.
The director of the show attempted to respond to this criticism in the wrong way.
Bringing up the emphasized femininity does not argue against her role as a manic pixie dream
girl. If the director wanted to break the trope, she may have Jess ignore Nicks problems and let
him make mistakes on his own. If he doesnt want to participate in her quirky activities, then she
wont force him, but this would also cause more controversy in the show rather than fix what
was being critiqued. The blatant gender roles and manic pixie status are what create the whole

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show. The stark contrast between Nicks melancholy personality and masculinity against Jesss
quirks and femininity drives the humor of the show and is extremely important. While Jesss
personality is not that unique in the television world, the director does a good job of using those
tropes and binaries to make the show funny. Changing the manic pixie dream girl trope will not
necessarily improve the show, therefore it shouldnt be seen as an insult.

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Works Cited

Stevenson, Sarah Grace. "The Depth of One-Dimensionality: An Analysis of How Culture

Misinterpreted the Manic Pixie Dream Girl." Cinemablograhpy. Web. 4 Dec.
2015. <http://www.cinemablography.org/manic-pixie-dream-girl.html>.